Suchergebnisse

The article focuses on the phenomenon of queer domesticity in Latvia in the 20th century, analysing evidence of a homosexual couple living together in a house they built in Rīga. Adapting to different political regimes, two men who met while working in the theatre could maintain their lives together for about twenty years. To do this, they had to use various adaptation tactics and subterfuge and create their own concept of family in their daily lives. Their subterfuge tactics have been so successful that their queerness and cohabitation are forgotten today. This case study adds to the knowledge of queerness during the Soviet era by highlighting the complex relationship between personal freedom and conformism concerning state power in the artistic environment.

This article employs narrative analysis to examine three testimonies provided by individuals who were contemporaries of lesbians in Soviet Latvia. The author's research is based on two oral history interviews and the diary entries of a homosexual man, dating between the 1950s and 1980s. The research was carried out in four stages: (1) story analysis; (2) identification of main topics and characters; (3) identification of main terms and tone; and (4) extraction of three key narratives. The findings demonstrate, firstly, the lack of terminology to describe homosexual/non-heterosexual relationships between women when referencing the Soviet time. This indicates that contemporary terms used by the LGBTQI+ community may not be valid for analysing the experiences of non-heterosexual people in Soviet Latvia. Secondly, the testimonies described in this article view same-sex women's relationships through heteronormative lens as deviating from the norm. Thirdly, the article highlights how rigid expectations of "manly" and "womanly" behaviour and traits are used to judge compliance with or deviation from societal norms. The understanding of non-heterosexual relationships between women, as evidenced by the sources, cannot be standardised. While the testimonies reference non-heterosexual relationships between women, they also mention same-sex relationships, which may have formed due to socioeconomic conditions and different intimate bonds.

This paper deals with the identification and comparison of dietary practices and their changes from the Late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age in two different ecosystems – the lower reaches of the Daugava river and Lake Lubāns wetland. Zooarchaeological, palaeobotanical, and stable isotope evidence of chemical elements were used. The obtained results show that the beginning of early farming in Latvia can be observed in the late Neolithic period, especially for the Corded Ware Culture people. However, the consumption of freshwater fish also remains significant during this period. Farming, as the main form of food provision, became established in Latvia in the Middle Bronze Age.